Students turn teacher into human sundae

March 10, 2012 at midnightUpdated March 10, 2012 at 9:11 p.m.

Trinity Episcopal School first-grader Larkin Burris, 6, gets to be the first to pour ice cream and toppings on gym teacher Renee Stroman Tuesday after she personally raised 1,000 for the American Heart Association. The students surpassed their original goal by $8,000.
Angeli Wright
for The Victoria Advocate

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Trinity students participated in the American Heart Association's Jump Rope for Heart program.

To learn more about the organization, go to VictoriaAdvocate.com, and follow the link on this story.www.heart.org.

Like a mass of sweet-toothed vultures, students at Trinity Episcopal School encroached upon their PE coach, their fingers teasing the trigger on cans of whipped cream.

"This is what you get for making us run," a voice from the crowd yelled.

But Renee Stroman, athletic director and PE coach at the school, was suited up for the strikes. In flippers, a hair net, goggles and a snorkel, Stroman made her way to a kiddie pool on the playground to accept her fate.

Stroman had made the students a deal, after all. If they raised $2,200 for the American Heart Association, she would become a human sundae.

The 130 kids in the school's kindergarten through eighth grades ended up raising more than $10,000 - more than any other school in the greater Victoria area, said Kristy Nelson, Trinity's development director.

And they certainly savored their success.

Getting the first go at Stroman was first-grader Larkin Burris, who was the school's top fundraiser, bringing in $1,000 from door-to-door sales.

"I put whipped cream on her head. It was funny," Larkin, 6, said while licking her fingers.

She and her mom tossed scoops of chocolate ice cream on Stroman's body, topping it off with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, all to the cheers of students.

"I'm so proud of all of them ... A lot of students wanted to raise the money," Lisa Burris said.

Having raised more than $3,000, the third-grade class got seconds. Unable to contain their mischievous grins, they doused Stroman with more toppings - strawberry syrup, nuts, sprinkles, marshmallows, even cherries.

Meanwhile, Stroman taunted the students, signaling them to bring it on while waving her arms with the threat of spreading the stickiness to students.

Though she greatly enjoyed splattering her teacher with whipped cream, third-grader Madison Fox, 9, never lost sight of the reason behind the candied chaos.

"It's a good thing to do for people because they have a messed up heart sometimes," she said.

And for Stroman, even while dripping a smorgasbord of sweets, that was the point. She said she was so proud of her students, she'd do it again.